I just got my first piece of Z-wave home automation; an Aeon Labs USB stick and a Düwi blinds controller.Getting things working was a breeze: press the button on the usb stick, press first the top button on the Düwi three times and then the bottom three times, insert the USB stick in my DCERouter, and everything is configured automatically.

Only one thing bothers me a bit: the blinds controller was recognized as a dimmer. No big deal; it still works, the On command corresponds to pressing the Up button on the module and the Off command corresponds to pressing the Down button.Similarly setting a dimming level higher than the current level corresponds to the Up button and a lower dimming level corresponds to the Down button.The Up and Down buttons on the module raise and lower the blinds respectively for 2 minutes, or until the end stop of the blinds has been reached, or until the button for the opposite direction is pressed.

So I can control it, it just looks a bit weird to setting a dimming level in my Orbiter, since that dimming level does not correspond to the level of the blinds at all.Also, I cannot send it an Open or Close command, I have to send it On or Off and the effect of those commands depends on whether the blinds are already moving when the command is received. So to be sure to open or close it I have to send it the same command twice.

So, no big deal, but I was wondering what is going on.

Maybe the Düwi blinds module cannot be distinguished from a Düwi dimmer?The wiki suggest that both the dimmer and blinds module are the same (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/D%C3%BCwi_ZW_ESJ_05436)But the Düwi website has two distinct product numbers for the dimmer (05433) and blinds (05436) module.Then again, the capabilities field in the webadmin shows "114,134,130,135,117,112,133,39,37,38" for my blinds module, and I found that 38 and 39 means that it is a binary & multi-level switch so I can see why LinuxMCE handles it as a dimmer.

Also, does LinuxMCE even have a device template for a blinds controller? So far I wasn't able to find it.Or is there some way to fake it such that I can make "Open" and "Close" commands appear in the Orbiter? I guess I could make a scenario to do that, but then I wouldn't be able to put it on the floorplan.

I'll be following this thread closely, I'm about to move into the new apartment this weekend, its all kitted out with a Duwi light switch or dimmer in every room, and also blind controllers in most rooms too. I hope it will all fit seamlessly together, but nothing else has so far so I'm not holding my breath

Good luck with it, and I hope there's a nice solution to the blind controller commands.

By the way, let me know if I can do some useful experiments. The whole setup currently contains only one z-wave module.So I don't mind resetting the zwave stuff, it's not like I'll ruin a careful setup containing many modules and scenarios

========== NEW LOG SECTION ==========102/02/11 21:17:3980 (spawning-device)Starting... 1102/02/11 21:17:3980 (spawning-device)Found /usr/pluto/bin/ZWave0502/02/11 21:17:47.955Creating child 81 <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1820 that this has no custom event handler for. It will not fire events. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1820 that this has no custom handler for. This is normal for IR. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Creating child 82 <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1922 that this has no custom event handler for. It will not fire events. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1922 that this has no custom handler for. This is normal for IR. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Creating child 83 <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1945 that this has no custom event handler for. It will not fire events. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.956Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 1945 that this has no custom handler for. This is normal for IR. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.961Creating child 89 <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.961Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 38 that this has no custom event handler for. It will not fire events. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:47.961Note: Device manager has attached a device of type 38 that this has no custom handler for. This is normal for IR. <0xb72456c0>0502/02/11 21:17:48.107Got reply to ZW_MEMORY_GET_ID, Home id: 0x1111115d, our node id: 1 <0xb7244b90>0502/02/11 21:17:48.343Got reply to GET_SUC_NODE_ID, node: 1 <0xb7244b90>0502/02/11 21:17:48.705Finished building node list: <0xb7244b90>0502/02/11 21:17:48.705Node: 1 basic: 0x2 generic: 0x2 specific: 0x1 pluto: 1945 <0xb7244b90>0502/02/11 21:17:48.705Node: 8 basic: 0x4 generic: 0x11 specific: 0x3 pluto: 38 <0xb7244b90>0502/02/11 22:37:59.623No callback received: await_callback: 218 timer: 31 <0xb7244b90>0502/03/11 3:06:19.598ERROR: callback id is invalid! <0xb7244b90>0502/03/11 7:54:23.004Going to rotate logs... <0xb6242b90>0502/03/11 8:21:12.572Going to rotate logs... <0xb6242b90>0502/03/11 8:37:12.907Error: ZW_SEND failed, removing job after three tries <0xb7244b90>0502/03/11 17:47:12.059Error: ZW_SEND failed, removing job after three tries <0xb7244b90>Ok, device 89 is my blind control device. My guess is that it is the Node 8 mentioned in the log.I looked it up, basic 0x4 means "Routing Slave", generic 0x11 "Multilevel switch", and specifix 0x3 means "Multiposition motor". That sounds allright, so I guess the Düwi module is presenting itself correctly.Somehow LinuxMCE connects template #38: "Light switch (Dimmable)" to this presentation.

I did some more experimenting. It turns out that my first assessment of how setting the dimming level affects the motor is incorrect. Yesterday I tried it by changing the level in steps of 25%. Today I tried it by steps of 1% and it turned out that the motor actually only moves a short distance then.

It turns out that the controller can be calibrated for the time it takes to lower or raise the blind. I didn't do that yet, since the whole setup is on my kitchen table, and the factory default is two minutes. So 1% dimming level change corresponds to a movement of 1.2 seconds, and a 25% level corresponds to a 30 second movement.

Ah well, a case of RTFM I guess. (In my defense the one I got with the module was in German, it became a lot clearer once I downloaded the English version )

Setting a new dimming level while the motor is moving immediately takes effect, reversing the direction if necessary. I don't know why I didn't notice that yesterday.Only the 0% dimming level seems to have a special meaning (keep going down for 2 minutes regardless of the current setting).Oh and the 99% and 100% dimming level seem to be the same (maybe some kind of round-off thing).

The manual also specifies how I can change the behavior of the module such that a press on the up or down button results in immediate movement in that direction regardless of whether the blind was already moving or not. I haven't tried that since I can now perfectly control the blinds using the "Set Level" command to open or close them, and I like the current behavior for my physical buttons.

That LinuxMCE detects the module as a dimmable light switch is therefore only a cosmetic issue in the webadmin, since I can give it the "Blinds" icon on the floorplan, and it behaves as expected when the dimming level is set.